Man arrested for stabbing woman after wreck

by Wes Mayer

A man suspected of stabbing a woman at least twice was arrested by Newnan Police officers Sunday night.

Around 7:46 p.m. Officers Roxanne Benefield, Brandon Johnson and N. White with the Newnan Police Department, who were working a traffic accident at the intersection of Dodson Street and Octavia Place southwest of downtown Newnan, responded to Mary Ann Street in reference to a stabbing.

According to Benefield’s report, when officers arrived, they were approached by the victim, who was holding her left elbow and had blood covering her arm and jeans — she told officers she was stabbed in the arm and stomach by Jessie James Dukes, 53.

Benefield said she pulled up the victim’s shirt and saw a puncture wound in the middle of her lower chest. While waiting for emergency medical personnel to arrive, officers applied pressure to the victim’s wounds and asked her about the incident — she said Dukes was mad at her for making him wreck his vehicle on Dodson Street, so he stabbed her.

An ambulance crew from Coweta Emergency Medical Service arrived on scene, and the victim was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.

Officers spoke to witnesses, and one man who was sitting in a home on Mary Ann Street when the incident occurred told them that the victim burst into the home screaming and bleeding and asked them to call 911, officers reported. The homeowner didn’t want to call 911 and made her leave, but the witness later went outside when he heard the victim scream again. The witness told officers he saw Dukes repeatedly stab the victim outside , and Dukes fled on foot when he heard police sirens.

The officers reported that around 8:28 p.m. they arrived at Dukes’ home on Ball Street and were given consent by the family to search the home for him. Officers found Dukes hiding in an upstairs bedroom underneath a bed, and he was taken into custody. Dukes was charged with aggravated assault with a knife, leaving the scene of an accident, driving with an expired license and driving with an open container.